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US Sprint

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Sprint has evolved into a global communications company that serves 23 million customers in more than 70 countries. Sprint PCS ("personal communications services") maintains the largest digital wireless network in the nation. It is the fourth largest wireless company in the United States and number three in the nation's long-distance telephone market. Sprint was responsible for a series of technological innovations in the 1980s and 1990s, including installing the first coast-to-coast fiber optic transmission network in the United States. It continues to innovate with new communications technology, deploying new forms of high-speed data transmission networks. Sprint also has a sizable international telecommunications market.
Sprint’s origins …show more content…

However, the company was ill-prepared for this growth. Often, customers had difficulty using US Sprint. Many who got through reportedly received wildly inaccurate bills. These problems took months to iron out, inspiring AT&T to launch a massive ad campaign to woo customers back. In planning its long-distance network, US Sprint adopted a flat architecture in which calls were passed from center to center, and routed around congested switching offices. By contrast, AT&T's network used a hierarchical design, in which calls of only a few dozen miles were routed over a bottom-tier network. The simplicity of US Sprint's network enabled engineers to make changes in its switching software instantaneously. AT&T's system required a series of staggered cut-overs. The system also enabled US Sprint to begin offering its own 800 services in competition with AT&T.
Over the years Sprint continued to make strides to become the largest communication network. In April 1989, US Sprint won its battle to gain access to millions of Bell company telephones whose long-distance service could be provided only by AT&T. This provided US Sprint with an opportunity to gain thousands of new accounts, handling long-distance calls placed from Bell company pay phones. Also in April, US Sprint reported its first profitable quarter, earning $27.5 …show more content…

In 1994, Sprint spun off their existing cellular operations as "360 Communications" for regulatory reasons, in order to start a new service in the PCS band. In 1998, 360 Communications was acquired by Alltel, which was in turn acquired by Verizon in 2009.Later in 1995, the company began to offer wireless service under the Sprint Spectrum brand in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. This was the first commercial PCS network in the United States.
On December 15, 2004, Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications announced they would merge to form Sprint Nextel Corporation. While billed as a merger of equals, the merger was transacted as purchase of Nextel Communications by Sprint Corporation for tax reasons; Sprint purchased 50.1 percent of Nextel. At the time of the merger announcement, Sprint and Nextel were the third and fifth leading providers in the U.S. mobile phone industry,

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